The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Astilbe, botanically known as Astilbe japonica×Astilbe arendsii and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Chocolate Cherry’.
The new Astilbe plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new uniform and freely flowering Astilbe plants with attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Astilbe plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 2010 in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands, of an unnamed selection of Astilbe japonica, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed selection of Astilbe arendsii, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Astilbe plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands in 2012.
Asexual reproduction of the new Astilbe plant by vegetative divisions in a controlled environment in Nieuwe Wetering, The Netherlands since December, 2012 has shown that the unique features of this new Astilbe plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.